Oamaru's Mark Taylor has made the New Zealand coxless quadruple sculls team, while John McGlashan College's Bradley Leydon fills the men's single sculls boat.
It will be Taylor's second year in the crew, while it will be Leydon's first experience on the international stage.
Having got an automatic trial for the team due to his gold medal in the under-18 single sculls at the Maadi Cup, Leydon was not sure what to expect.
``I couldn't tell you, to be honest,'' he said.
``It's just a whole other level, but I'm excited for it.''
He would relocate, along with Taylor and the rest of the team, to Cambridge at the end of May.
There he would do his schooling at St Peters College and live at the lodge at Lake Karipiro.
His training would increase to two sessions a day through to the squad's departure for Lithuania at the end of July.
Being a boarder at John McGlashan, Leydon was used to being away from his Queenstown home.
However, there were other factors that could make this time away more challenging
``It's going to be fun.
``I don't know, [there's] a lot of compromises, with my own school and not being with my mates from school and all of that.
``And being away from my family for even longer.''
Leydon gave up playing rugby in year 9 after a knee injury. It has turned out to be a good move, as the year 13 pupil continues to make rapid improvements on the water.
He has just finished his fourth season of rowing. This past season has been his best to date, winning a gold and bronze at Maadi Cup, improving on the two bronzes from a year ago.
Whether he would still be in Dunedin next year was another question, as he hoped to study marketing at university, but was not sure where.
Meanwhile, Taylor was hoping to build on his experience from last year and take the men's quad to new heights.
``It's part of why I'm so excited about going back this year,'' Taylor said regarding what he could take out of last year.
``I've got more to give and more to bring from training at Southern and doing New Zealand's for the second time and having a new crew, I'm pretty excited about it.''
Taylor rowed out of the Southern RPC, although still wore his Oamaru Rowing Club colours in competition.
He had moved to Christchurch this year and was studying a Bachelor of Agriculture at Lincoln University.
Having come off his experience last year, he entered this season wanting to see how much he could improve.
The results came as a surprise even to him.
He has taken 11 seconds off his erg time and improving his on-water technique to the point he was comfortable rowing alongside members of the national under-23 squad.
Taylor's crew for the world championships also includes Sam Monkley, Luke Brady and Finn Jenkins.
The championships are open to rowers 18 years old and younger as at December 31 and run from August 2 to 6.
They are to be held in Trakai, Lithuania.
- Jeff Cheshire
